INCUNABULA are early printed books. The term can be used to describe
the results of any printing start-up or any first endeavor. It is most
commonly applied to the books printed from Johann Gutenberg' s Bible
(1454) to 1501. The last date is somewhat arbitrary, and does not
represent any event of importance in the history of printing. Another
common English term is "fifteeners". Most of the typefaces were either
Gothic, or Roman fonts like the Jensen. The majority of incunabula
contained Latin texts, and the total number of copies printed is estimated
at anywhere between 550,000 (Komission für einem Gesamtkaltaog der
Wiegendrucke) and 20 million (L'Apparition du livre). Even extant
exemplars are impossible to count, since incunabula were printed in nearly
twenty countries, are widely dispersed among public and private owners,
are called by several names, and are often counted with along with
post-incunabula. Illustrations were accomplished largely with woodcuts,
and there were occasionally painted initial letters. .
The
incunabula section of the Andy Holt Virtual
Library is composed of a home page devoted to the history, features,
materials and procedures early printing, a second page
containing catalogs and databases, and a third page with
links to whole or selected pages of photographic facsimiles consultable
online. In all cases, wherever I have chosen to link a digitized book from
the last century, certain users may be denied access because their domains
are under regional or national copyright
restrictions.
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